I think we can probably apply the same logic to the aircraft. I saw a wonderful display from the "vintage" vulcan this year at RIAT, but also recall seeing horrendous footage of a "serving" vulcan falling apart in mid-air.
If you mean the mid air break up of VX770 at Syerston in 1958 it was hardly 'serving'. It was doing flight testing of the Rolls Royce Conway engines and so was not a production standard aircraft with a normal release to service.
Sadly, I believe it killed 3x AVRO test pilots and 1x RAF navigator in the aircraft and then on the ground 3x RAF personnel in the runway caravan.